Defendant guilty of manslaughter in fatal dog mauling

Thursday

Aug 29, 2013 at 12:01 AMAug 29, 2013 at 11:02 AM

PANAMA CITY – The owner of two dogs who killed a 7-year-old boy was found guilty of manslaughter today and not guilty of tampering with evidence.

PANAMA CITY — Edward Daniels tries not to show his emotions, he testified Thursday morning, so he didn’t react visibly in the evening when he was found guilty of manslaughter in the death of his 7-year-old neighbor.

It took the jury about two hours to reach its verdict: guilty of manslaughter for neglecting to contain his dogs on the day they got loose and mauled Tyler Jett; not guilty of tampering with evidence for washing the blood from one of them after it returned home.

Daniels told jurors he didn’t know what his dogs had done when he washed away Tyler’s blood from Fat Boy’s face and paws. He’d heard a gunshot moments earlier and believed one of his neighbors had followed through on a threat to kill his dogs, so he washed away the blood looking for injuries. Only later did he learn what Fat Boy and M.J. had done.

“I felt bad. I was surprised by it,” he said. “I didn’t think my dogs would do something like that.”

But his neighbors said they’d warned him so often that he should have known, and the jury agreed. Daniels, who has no significant prior criminal history, could be sentenced to up to 15 years when he next appears before Judge James Fensom on Oct. 14 for sentencing.

Defense attorney Kevin Carlisle tried to convince the jury that neighbors had enhanced their stories about the confrontations in the months since Tyler died. Daniels’ testimony disputed many of his neighbors’ accounts, and he said no one ever explicitly told him they felt the dogs were dangerous or aggressive.

Prosecutor Larry Basford said there was plenty of evidence to show the dogs were dangerous before they killed Tyler; Daniels, he said, either chose to ignore them or didn’t care.

“You can’t stick your head in the sand like an ostrich and pretend the world isn’t there,” Basford told the jury during his closing arguments.

For Tyler’s family, the verdict amounted to justice for Tyler. His mother, Brandy Wilhite, said after the trial that they would go to the cemetery where Tyler is buried, perhaps with one of the chocolate milkshakes the boy enjoyed.

Wilhite said she wasn’t sympathetic to Daniels, but she felt for his family. Her best friend Katy Phillips, who describes herself as Tyler’s step-mother, described the situation as a loss for everyone involved.

“Not only did we lose the best part of us, they’ve lost their son,” Phillips said.

Edward Daniels Sr., who testified about his and his son’s efforts to repair the privacy fence from where the dogs escaped several times before they attacked Tyler, said after the trial that he was unhappy with the way his son had been portrayed in media coverage. He declined to comment further.

Daniels testified that he’d only seen the dogs behave aggressively once before, with another dog. But Wednesday nearly half the people who were his neighbors on Kelly Court in Callaway testified to the trouble the dogs had caused. Several told of how they armed themselves with guns, knives, rakes and shovels when they were confronted by the unattended dogs.

The dogs are reportedly bulldogs, but Daniels testified that he wasn’t actually sure of their breed; bulldog was an educated guess based on a Google search, he said. The dogs were euthanized after the attack.

An earlier version of this story is posted below:

PANAMA CITY – The owner of two dogs who killed a 7-year-old boy took the stand this morning.

On April 2 Edward Daniels’ dogs attacked Tyler Jett, who lived across from Daniels in Callaway. During the first half of the manslaughter trial Prosecutor Larry Basford called witnesses who testified that Daniels had been warned his dogs were violent and dangerous and that after the attack he was unemotional and washed the blood off of them in an attempt to destroy evidence.

While on the stand Daniels denied that a neighbor told him the dogs would kill a child. He also said he never saw the dogs act aggressively, except once, with another dog. He added that the dogs often found new places in his privacy fence where they could escape.

"They found a weak spot and the privacy fence and tore it, tore it up." Daniels said, adding that they never got out in the same place twice.

Immediately after the attack Daniels believed that someone had shot his dog, he said. He washed the blood looking for an injury, he added. Finding none, he believed the dog attacked another dog.

Daniels also testified that he was not an emotional person by nature in order to explain his reaction after finding out his dogs had seriously injured a child.

“I felt bad. I was surprised by it. I didn't think my dogs would do something like that,” he said.

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